First Step: Find Out Why You Have Sciatica Pain
Getting relief from sciatica takes some detective work. First, try to find out the cause. Then you can take steps to address it. This might require a visit to your doctor and some sessions with a physical therapist.
Causes of sciatica include:
- Spinal stenosis .
- Injury to the sciatic nerve from a fall or accident.
- Tumor or growth near the sciatic nerve .
The cause of your sciatica affects what positions or activities bother you, Sieberth says. This will also determine which sleeping positions work for you. For instance, someone with a bulging disc may find back sleeping comfortable, while someone with stenosis might prefer side sleeping.
Best Sleeping Position For Neck Pain
If you have spent the entire day with stiff and sore muscles, then you probably want to know how to sleep correctly with neck pain at nighttime. You may need to improve your posture while you sleep by choosing a position that helps keep your spine in alignment.
What is the best sleeping position for neck pain specifically? In general, there are two sleeping positions that are most comfortable on the necksleeping on your back or your side. Lets take a look at how to best side sleep and back sleep.
- Back sleeping: Back sleepers are best to use a thin pillow to support the natural curve of your neck. It may be helpful to use a small neck pillow or a specialized pillow with built-in neck support. You can also put a small neck roll into the case of a soft pillow.
- Side sleeping: How about the best pillow for neck pain for side sleepers? Those that sleep on the side typically need a thicker pillow to ensure the head and neck is positioned in the middle of the shoulders. The height and width of your shoulders are also important to consider. For instance, a petite person will require a slimmer pillow than a broad-shouldered individual.
What Can Cause Back Pain
There are a few different ways that back pain can manifest. Most of them involve issues with the spine and its vertebrae. Among the most common reasons for feeling pain in your back are herniated disks, poor posture and straining back muscles.
Having a herniated disk isa serious condition.Verified SourceMayo ClinicRanked #1 hospital by U.S. News & World Report and one of the most trusted medical institutions in the world. The staff is committed to integrated patient care, education, and research.View sourceThese occur when the soft interior of a spinal disk protrudes into its hard exterior. This can cause moderate to severe pain. Herniated disks require medical attention.
If youre having numbness in your back or chronic pain, visit a chiropractor and see what their diagnosis is. Some people can have herniated disks and not even realize it, but it is important to get checked so the issue doesnt escalate.
Another leading cause of back pain is poor posture. It can easily cause pain or worsen current symptoms. By hunching over, having your legs crossed, or a combination of both your spine will start moving out of its natural alignment. Without thinking about it, having a laptop that is on a desk can make it easy to hunch and put stress on your back.
Also Check: Advil Or Ibuprofen For Back Pain
Why Your Mattress May Be Causing Back Pain
Weve talked a lot already about alignment and it can be very hard to get into a good position if your mattress is old and too soft. The best mattress for people with lower back pain is one that is in the medium-firm to firm range. This will give your body enough comfort while still giving your back sufficient support.
Do You Have Lower Back Pain In The Morning
Some people find that their back pain is worse in the morning, while others have more pain at the end of a long workday. Its important to pay attention to the times when your pain spikes because it could be an indication of the cause of your pain.
Its estimated that about 65 million people in the United States have experienced recent back pain, with about 16 million people having chronic back pain problems. When this pain persists, it can disrupt all aspects of daily living, making it hard to keep up with your responsibilities at home and work.
Not only does back pain make it difficult to get through the day, but this health concern can also be expensive. Direct costs include doctors visits, therapy appointments, pain medication, massage, and other services to reduce or eliminate the pain. Indirect costs of chronic back pain include missed work or lost opportunities because you arent feeling up to the job.
Even though back pain is a common complaint, you dont have to suffer from this discomfort indefinitely. Modern medical treatments might be used to help you manage the pain, so you can return to a normal, healthy lifestyle once again.
Every situation is unique, so the treatment outcomes vary. The most important step is to identify the root cause of your back pain. Then, a customized treatment plan can be designed to alleviate your discomfort.
Read Also: Tylenol Or Aleve For Back Pain
Get Help From A Professional:
Massage – Getting pain treatment through massage is another great way to get rid of pain. While this may be a luxury approach, a monthly massage can be affordable and effective. There are many types of massage options, so be sure to ask about targeting your areas of pain. With the rising accessibility of massage guns, you can also get a frequent and affordable targeted massage. You can get a very high-quality massage gun for a few hundred dollars.
Go to a Chiropractor – Finding a good chiropractor can be the key to relieving your pain. Chiropractors are trained in musculoskeletal manipulation and can identify the cause of your pain and specifically treat areas of pain with specialized procedures. They can also advise you on managing your pain in your day-to-day life and suggest other activities that may help.
Physical Therapy – Often treating patients that have suffered trauma or recovering from surgery, physical therapists and their staff are also more than qualified to help treat back pain. Overlapping with treatment from a chiropractor, seeking help from a physical therapist can be another highly effective option for treating back and neck pain caused by sitting.
Special Cautions For Moms
When youre sleeping for two, you need as much quality rest as you can get. The very notion of sleeping on your stomach is laughable late into your pregnancy, but youll want to avoid it early on, too. That extra weight around the middle will increase the pull on your spine.
Also, your baby will have more room if he or she isnt forced to squeeze in between your spine and the mattress. A
Recommended Reading: Will Aleve Help Back Pain
The Ideal Sleep Position: On Your Back
The best position to avoid back pain is lying flat on your back. Even so, many people find it the hardest way to enjoy deep sleep. For optimal spine alignment, place one pillow underneath your head or neck and another underneath your knees. If youre pregnant, however, you should avoid this position because it decreases blood circulation to the heart and baby.
Sleep On Your Side To Relieve Pain From A Pulled Back Muscle
One of the most common causes of lower back pain is a pulled back muscle, which occurs when a muscle in your lower back is strained or torn as a result of being over-stretched. Symptoms from a pulled back muscle typically resolve within a few days, but the intense pain can make it difficult to fall asleep at night. Worse yet, the longer you lie in the bed, the more deconditioned your body gets and the worse your symptoms may become.
No single sleeping position works for every person with a pulled back muscle, but a good place to start is to test sleeping on your side. When sleeping on your side, try the following:
- Avoid a tight curled-up fetal position , and instead sleep with your body slightly elongated.
- Slip a slim pillow between your knees to support the natural curvature of your spine.
See Mattresses and Sleep Positions for Each Back Pain Diagnosis
- Find a head pillow that holds your head midway between each shoulder. If your pillow is too thin or too thick it can bend your neck at an uncomfortable angle.
You may also benefit from wearing a disposable heat wrap to bed to help alleviate the pain from a pulled back muscle. These wraps deliver muscle-relaxing, low-level heat over the course of several hoursand so they may help you both fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Don’t Miss: Advil Vs Ibuprofen For Back Pain
Do Use Hot Or Cold Therapy Before Bed
Use hot or cold elements on your back can help sooth your pain before bed. This could include ice or a cold gel pack wrapped in cloth applied to your back, taking a warm shower or hot bath, or using a heating pad or hot water bottle on the affected area for 15-20 minutes before bed.
Hot or cold therapy can help reduce inflammation caused by lower back pain and promote relief before you go to sleep. Generally, heat is better for longer chronic back pain while ice is better in the first 72 hours.
Makarasana Yoga Pose For Lower Back Pain
- Lie down on your stomach.
- Rest the palms of your both the hands below your chin. Elbows resting on ground give support. The posture resembles making a cup with your palms and resting your chin over it. Finger and thumbs will touch your cheeks.
- Elbows on ground should be joined together.
- Keep your feet joined together.
- Bend your left leg from the knee and bring it up to touch your ankle to the left hip. Raise as far as you can.
- Hold for 5-10 seconds.
- Come back to the starting position.
- Repeat with the right leg.
- Do 3-5 times with both the legs.
- Now bend both the legs and bring them up together to touch your hips.
- Hold and come back to the starting position.
- Repeat for 3-5 times.
These were some lower back pain relief exercises that included lower back stretches and yoga poses for lower back pain. Doing them will help you keep your back and spine healthy. However, you should always learn yoga from an expert yoga practitioner and also consult your doctor before doing any exercise for lower back pain.
You May Like: Aleve Or Advil For Lower Back Pain
Sacroiliac Joint Disease As A Cause Of Lower Back Pain
Sacroiliac joints connect the sacrum located at the bottom of your spine with your hips on either side. When you move this joint excessively or too little then you can get a sacroiliac joint disease or dysfunction. It simply means lower back pain, sometimes accompanied by buttock or groin pain. These are the symptoms of lower back pain due to sacroiliac joint disease.
- It is actually an ache which is known as continuous, dull pain. It is not an acute pain.
- Not only in lower back, you have pain in your hips, groin, and thighs too.
- The pain worsens when you sit. It relieves when you lie down or even sit in a reclining position.
- Pain is also relieved when you change your position.
Ice packs, compression and support braces are used for immediate relief from pain due to sacroiliac joint disease. Chiropractic manipulation is sometimes recommended to make the alignment and movement of this joint normal. Rest is also important to treat such pain. Heat can be applied only when intense pain subsides. Controlled gradual physical therapy and certain lower back exercises are also essential to strengthen the muscles around your sacroiliac joint. Apart from these, gentle and low impact aerobic exercises are helpful in increasing blood circulation of the area which contributes in relieving lower back pain.
and coccydynia. Depression and stress too may lead to chronic lower back pain.
How Sleep Can Contribute To Back Pain
Although there are many potential sources of lower back pain, how youre sleeping can be a factor. When youre sleep-deprived, your tolerance for pain is lower than it would be if you slept well. Studies have shown that losing sleep can heighten sensitivity to painful stimuli. In theory, sleep loss increases painful inflammation and getting enough sleep may reduce inflammation.
Another factor that can increase back pain is your response to pain medication when youre sleep-deprived. In a study of healthy normal adults, the analgesic effects of codeine are diminished in sleep-deprived individuals versus non-sleepy individuals. Sleeping well may help your pain medications work better.
You May Like: Advil Or Tylenol For Back Pain
Get Out Of Bed The Right Way
As SpineUniverse explains:
Lastly, make sure you are getting out bed properly. Unfortunately, the majority of people will sit up, twist their back to prepare to get into a standing position, and use their back to stand. This method is incorrect. The proper way to exit a bed upon waking is to roll onto your side and use your arm to push up from the side-lying position. From this position, scoot to the very edge of the bed and get up using your legs, not your back.
How To Relieve Lower Back Pain With Stretches And Exercises
Activity is often the best way to get rid of back pain. Even as simple an exercise as walking helps you get up from sitting position and puts your body in a more neutral position- in an upright position. However, when you get flare-ups and episodes of acute pain, avoid exercising without the advice of your doctor or physical therapist. When your pain subsides, start doing the lower back exercises to prevent such future flare ups.
You May Like: Does Aleve Help Back Pain
What Causes Low Back Pain
Lower back discomfort can cause various symptoms including:
- extreme stiffness
- shooting pain in the back or around neck area
- difficulty walking and weak knees.
- numbness of hands and feet
- burning sensation or discomfort if you have been sitting too long.
Depending on the nature of your job, sedentary lifestyles that involve sitting down for too long can be one of the causes of lower back pain. Other causes include:
Chronic strain If you lift heavy objects incorrectly or often carry out strenuous activities without warming up properly before doing so, it will put a lot of stress on your muscles causing them to tighten This is where chronic strain begins to occur leading to lower back pain.
Weak muscles Lower back pain after sleeping could be due to weak abdominal muscles which results in back pain. If you do not exercise regularly, your core is weak, and without proper support to hold the spine straight during sleep, your body twists into an unnatural position causing lower back pain to occur The more you experience lower back pain after sleeping, the weaker your abdominals become.
Poor posture Most people spend most of their time sitting down for work or driving. This often leads to slouching as a person tries to rest his/her head on the steering wheel while driving or sitting at work all day long In this case, poor posture results in excessive strain on the muscles around the shoulders and neck which can lead to lower back discomfort.
Find The Right Position
Certain sleeping positions can help ease your back pain, so find one that is most comfortable for you. Try sleeping with a pillow between or underneath your legs for extra support.
If you sleep on your side, put the pillow between your knees and draw them up slightly toward your chest. If you like to sleep on your back, try the pillow under your knees, or roll up a small towel and place it under the small of your back.
Avoid sleeping on your stomach because it puts a lot of strain on your back. If itâs the only position you can fall asleep in, put a pillow under your stomach to take some of the pressure off your back. Or, to break the habit, wear a sleep shirt with a pocket in front and put a tennis ball in it.
Recommended Reading: Will Aleve Help With Back Pain
Do You Have Neck Or Back Pain Your Sleep Style May Be Contributing
If youve ever woken up with a tingling arm or achy neck, youve experienced the negative effects of sleeping in the wrong position.
The key is alignment: When you sleep with your spine in a neutral position, it reduces the strain on your back and neck. It also helps to sleep on a firm surface.
So which sleep positions should you embrace and which should you avoid? Heres a rundown, from best to worst.
Ask For Recommendations To Find The Best Mattress
If youre wondering how to get rid of lower back pain while sleeping, and youve decided to spring for a mattress, you can also rely on reviews to help.
Ask the salesperson which ones he or she would suggest for back pain. Also look towards the internet for online reviews and testimonials. We suggest checking out these mattresses that were created specifically for people with back pain.
You May Like: Aleve Or Advil For Back Pain
Sleep On Your Stomach
This position is effective for stomach sleepers. But this sleeping position is not recommended for others because it may add stress on the neck. To relieve pressure off your back, place a pillow under your lower abdomen and pelvis. You may fall asleep with a pillow on your head or without. This position is highly recommended if the pain is caused by a degenerative disc disorder.
